


I'll be your shoulder to cry on

by beckabear



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Author Is Sleep Deprived, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, World Juniors, author is sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-07
Updated: 2021-01-07
Packaged: 2021-03-17 18:41:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28604616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beckabear/pseuds/beckabear
Summary: They’re flying through their opponents, until they’re not.
Relationships: Bowen Byram/Dylan Cozens
Comments: 4
Kudos: 17





	I'll be your shoulder to cry on

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and Kudos fuel the author. I just love these boys and I'm so proud of how they did in the tournament, not matter the ending. I needed a way to cope, so here it is.

They’re flying through their opponents, until they’re not. It’s the gold medal game, and he’s trying his hardest, because having to share a captaincy that belonged to your best friend, with the guy he’s pretty sure he’s in love with is laying heavy on his heart, and the damn puck won’t go in the fucking net! 

Dylan is skating his heart out, hell the whole game is, and he can hear the worry running through Bow’s head when they still don’t have a goal in the final 10 minutes of the game. The United States has two. Their window is closing fast, until it stops. In a nearly perfect tournament, they lost the one game they needed to win the most, for Kirbs. 

Dylan watches as the USA bench mobs the ice, going to congratulate their knight in shining armour. Dylan can feel his heart drop out of his stomach. It’s over and they couldn’t get it done. He’s standing in one of the corners on the ice, tracking the hyperactive movement of the celebrating players, and the sluggish movement of his teammates, his friends. 

What hurts the most is when they call Bow to give out the medals, after all he was wearing the C tonight. Dylan can tell from the wrinkle in his brow that Bowen is holding back the tears, for the sake of the cameras following his every movement, and for the heartbroken team receiving the silver medals. When Dylan is called, he skates straight to Bow, not even bothering with a bro hug. The rest of the team quickly receives their awards, and then Bow, Dylan, and Connor are posing with the trophy. 

Bow is named player of the game for canada and the stupid fucking camera won’t leave him alone. It infuriates Dylan to no end, and he’s about to do something idiotic, when Bow turns to him, and sticks his face, flushed and wet from freshly shed tears into the crook of his neck. Dylan cuffs the back of his captain’s head in a reassuring, but half-hearted gesture. All he wants to do is to comfort the puffy eyed boy in front of him, but they watch as the USA receives gold, and then they’re quickly filing off the ice, Dylan and Bow the last to go, after hugging all the boys. They go through Coach’s speech, which most of them tune out, media, and then they shower.

They are walking side by side to their rooms in the hotel, right next door to each other, a door connecting the two rooms. Dylan doesn’t bother opening his door, catching Bow’s door before it closes, and then he is enveloping the blue eyed boy into his arms, as he finally breaks down. The door closes, and then the co-captains are sitting in the entryway of Bowen’s room, sobbing their eyes out, into each other’s shoulders. They shake against each other with the force of the sbs wracking through their bodies. 

Dylan is sitting mostly upright, his back against the door, Bow cradled in his arms. He pulls back enough to lay a sweet, but meaningful kiss to the temple of his favorite person. Bowne is leaning into the touch before he can think anything of it. Dylan’s looking down at the beautiful boy in his lap, his lip bitten from the worrying he’d been doing as the final minutes left them goalless, his amazing, emotional eyes, red-rimmed with the tears of loss. Something breaks in Dylan’s heart, and it’ like his whole chest has been cracked open. Dylan doesn’t know how long they sit there in the quiet, but he spends all of it gazing down at his favorite defenseman. 

He manages a watery smile, before Bow is saying the words that he’d never thought he’d hear, “Dyls, before we leave, I just want to get it all out on the table. I don’t say it lightly, or in a bro way. I love you, Coz.” THe butterflies have arrived, and Dylan and Bowen’s lips meet in a soft kiss. There’s nothing steamy about it, but the emotions conveyed in the simple kiss are enough, the pain, the love, and the passion. 

Dylan wanted gold more than anything, but he got something even more beautiful, because in Bowen Byram’s golden heart of hearts, Dylan has taken root, and the flower is flourishing beyond belief.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Comments and Kudos fuel the author


End file.
